The present invention relates to floor coating compositions and flooring material.
There are cases where wax finishes have been used to improve the gloss and stain resistance of floor surfaces. However, these waxed floor surfaces require periodic maintenance due to insufficient coating durability. In addition, since these wax based coatings and finishes typically include diluting solvents, it is necessary to evaporate the solvents. In the drying/solvent evaporation process, floor traffic is interrupted until the wax coating or finish is completely dried; hence there has been a case where the drying process interferes with business particularly in 24 hours stores and the like.
On the other hand, ultraviolet curable floor coatings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,943,201B, U.S. Pat. No. 8,808,863B, U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,576B, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,498,362B, and “Field-Applied, UV-Curable Coatings for Concrete Flooring” January/February/March 2009 RadTech Report, p. 25 to p. 32 (hereinafter, Non-Patent Literature 1). In particular, ultraviolet curable floor coatings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,943,201B, U.S. Pat. No. 8,808,863B, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,676B, and Non-Patent Literature 1. The ultraviolet curable floor coatings are cured with ultraviolet light after application to floor surfaces. A coating layer formed by the curing of the ultraviolet floor coating has superior durability and performance as compared to the coating layer of a wax coating or finish. Hence, the need for periodic maintenance is reduced. Furthermore, the ultraviolet curable floor coating does not contain a solvent, and therefore does not require a drying process. Thus, the ultraviolet curable floor coating is expected to solve the problems of the wax coatings and finishes described above.
The curing of the ultraviolet curable floor coatings applied on the floor is performed by, for example, the movable ultraviolet irradiation equipment disclosed in Non-Patent Literature 1. Specifically, the worker moves the ultraviolet irradiation equipment over the area where the uncured floor coating has been applied. At that time, the ultraviolet curable floor coating is cured by exposure to a selected and predetermined amount of ultraviolet energy. The worker repeatedly performs the work described above in the areas where the uncured floor coating was applied, thereby curing the remaining areas of the floor coating.